Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a vehicle seat belt device and an occupant protection system.
Related Art
As a seat belt device that can automatically engage and disengage a seat belt, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (JP-A) No. 2009-279985 discloses a structure where motors disposed on a vehicle seat and take-up members attached to a roof are coupled to each other in the seat up and down direction by wires. Furthermore, the structure is disposed with joints that are movable in the seat up and down direction along the wires, and a belt (webbing) whose end portions are anchored to the roof and that bridges the joints. Additionally, the belt is placed on the roof side together with the joints in a state before engagement (with the vehicle occupant), and the motors are driven after an occupant is seated in the vehicle seat so that the joints are moved in the seat downward direction and the seat belt becomes engaged (with the occupant).
However, in the technology disclosed in JP-A No. 2009-279985, each end portion of the webbing is anchored to the roof, so the facing direction of the vehicle seat and the position of the vehicle seat cannot be freely changed. For this reason, it is desirable to provide a vehicle seat belt device that can automatically engage and disengage the seat belt even in cases where, owing to the development of sophisticated driving assist technologies and automatic driving technologies, it has become possible to freely adjust the facing direction of the vehicle seat and the position of the vehicle seat.